The Kirkus Prize is one of the richest literary awards in the world, with a prize of $50,000 bestowed annually to authors of fiction, nonfiction and young readers’ literature. It was created to celebrate the 81 years of discerning, thoughtful criticism Kirkus Reviews has contributed to both the publishing industry and readers at large. Books that earned the Kirkus Star with publication dates between November 1, 2015, and October 31, 2016 (see FAQ for exceptions), are automatically nominated for the 2016 Kirkus Prize, and the winners will be selected on November 3, 2016, by an esteemed panel composed of nationally respected writers and highly regarded booksellers, librarians and Kirkus critics.

KIRKUS REVIEW

A sober, passionate
defense of Christian faith.

In these 17 essays,
Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist Robinson (Iowa Writers’ Workshop; Lila,
2014, etc.) returns to themes she considered most recently in her memoir, When
I Was a Child I Read Books (2012): ethics, morality, reverence, and
her own convictions as a Christian. “My Christology is high,” she writes, “in
that I take Christ to be with God, and to be God. And I take it to be true that
without him nothing was made that was made.” Much scientific thinking, she
believes, draws conclusions from only a “radically partial model of reality”
that excludes the marvelous and the improbable. She criticizes, for example,
“the reductionist tendencies among neuroscientists” to propose a material model
for the human mind; instead, she finds the soul “a valuable concept, a
statement of the dignity of a human life and of the unutterable gravity of
human action and experience.” Robinson is an astute critic of
self-righteousness among some who identify as Christians: “a harshness, a
bitterness, a crudeness, and a high-handedness” has entered political life, she
maintains, causing some in the “religious monoculture” to be self-serving,
self-congratulatory, and insular. This kind of American Christian identity, she
sees, is “rooted in an instinctive tribalism” that incites resentment, rage,
and bigotry. Contemporary America, she writes, “is full of fear,” but fear “is
not a Christian habit of mind.” This fear “operates as an appetite or an
addiction. You can never be safe enough.” Fear also leads to rash actions, such
as increased gun sales, which are often justified by misreadings of the Second
Amendment. As she notes, “gun sales stimulate gun sales—a splendid business
model.” Besides offering close readings of biblical texts, Robinson also
considers the works of Calvin, Shakespeare, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and William
James.

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